I said ” That’s it! you have proved that you are not an imposter. that’s exactly what I expected you to say. You are an orthopedic surgeon through and through!”

He chuckled and said, “You know, my advisors laughed at me when I said I was going to study infectious diseases. They said orthopedics was the only logical specialty for me. something to do with my personality type…….”

“And occasionally I am called to look at a clavicle fracture but I don’t do chest X-rays.”

So it was a pleasant collegial exchange, and BTW it was very helpful. Nowhere near as serious as I was worrying about. A simple cure, I will spare the rest of the details. I still need to lose weight and get into better shape. To overdo the exercise was what got me into this fix in the first place.

I think the nature of nurses is to worry and to think the worst…… which got me to thinking.

Many years ago in Maine I was ice-fishing with a General Surgeon, the same guy who did the Caesarean Delivery of my oldest child. We were discussing this very subject, and he told me the following:

An internist, a surgeon and a pathologist were duck hunting one weekend. they were sharing dinner in the remote cabin when some ducks flew overhead.

“Judging by the call, and the flight formation, and the time of day, there a seventy percent possibility that it was a flight of mallards, but we can’t truly rule out Canadian Geese” said the internist.

The surgeon grabs a shotgun, and fires it through thee wall in the direction of the sound.

He tosses the shotgun to the floor, turns to the pathologist, and says